Greinke shines as Diamondbacks sink in standings

The Dodgers’ dominance of their globe-trotting partners, the Arizona Diamondbacks, has spanned two continents and nine games now after a 7-0 walkover at Chase Field on Friday night.

The Dodgers have beaten the Diamondbacks in eight of those nine meetings this season and have outscored them 53-28. In the Diamondbacks’ six home games (counting the two in Australia), they have never led in any of the 54 innings and the Dodgers have built multi-run leads by mid-game every time.

“I think the main thing is our team has done better this year in general,” Dodgers right-hander Zack Greinke said, straining more in trying to explain the Dodgers’ advantage without embarrassing the 16-28 Diamondbacks than he strained to throw eight scoreless innings Friday. “They’ve struggled a bit. I’m sure they’ll get hot some time this year and the matchup could even out.”

The Diamondbacks have only 10 more of those matchups to even it up. The Dodgers, meanwhile, have 4½ months to figure out how to be the team they are when playing the Diamondbacks – when they’re not playing the Diamondbacks.

Against the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers have averaged 5.89 runs per game with 3½ extra-base hits per game and a .272 batting average with runners in scoring position. Against everyone else, they are averaging 3.79 runs per game, batting .250 with runners in scoring position – and have a losing record (15-19).

“No – it frustrates me when we don’t play well any time,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said when asked if it frustrates him that the Dodgers haven’t spread their game around a little more. “Some teams you hit well against as a player. Some teams you pitch well against. This is one of those teams we’ve played well against this year. I hope that continues.”

Scott Van Slyke certainly has his favorites. He had a double and a home run off Diamondbacks starter Wade Miley Friday and is 6 for 9 with three doubles and three home runs off Miley this season, 7 for 16 in their careers.

“I think it just makes your at-bats a little easier (when you know you’ve had success against a pitcher),” Van Slyke said. “You’re not as anxious about any pitch. You don’t have to worry about how he’s going to approach you. You just look for something to whack.”

Van Slyke’s sixth-inning home run was well-whacked. It traveled an estimated 454 feet, bouncing off the hitter’s background in straightaway center field.

Yasiel Puig joked that his home run – an opposite-field drive that started the scoring – paled in comparison, barely clearing the right-field fence. But that home run was one of three hits for Puig, who also had a single and an RBI double Friday to extend his hitting streak to 15 games with an extra-base hit and an RBI in the past seven of those games.

Puig is batting .426 (26 for 61) with 11 runs scored and 19 driven in during the hitting streak.

“He’s getting better all the time,” Mattingly said. “What we feel he can be – he’s getting close to being the player who can have that kind of big impact.”

Greinke extended a streak of his own. He allowed just five hits in his eight shutout innings. The Diamondbacks didn’t get a runner to second base against him after the third inning and Greinke had as many hits (two) as he allowed in his last five innings.

Greinke is 7-1 in nine starts this season and has not allowed more than two runs in a start since last July, a 21-start stretch during which he has gone 13-2 with a 1.87 ERA. In the past 100 years, only Roger Clemens had a streak as long.

“I forgot how much fun it is to catch him,” said Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis, who missed five weeks with a knee injury. “He has so many weapons to go to and he’s so imaginative and creative out there on the mound.”